Vacancy
by snoozin81
Summary: Jay, Emma, and Manny find themselves trapped in a hotel with a psychotic killer seeking revenge.
1. The Roach Motel

Jay shifted in his seat, reaching up and twisting the heating vent away from his face. The sun had set about an hour back and there was still several hours of highway stretched out before them. The car was one passenger down due to Sean's sudden desire to put his life in danger for the good of his country. He'd staid behind at The Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School in Quebec and would be spending the next six months there. It seemed his hero complex had taken over and sailed to new heights upon his return to Toronto.

A disgusted sound irrupted from the back of his throat drawing the attention of the brunette beside him. He ignored her like he'd done most of the weekend. She was cute if you went for the kind of girl who tried too hard to get noticed, which he didn't. Plus her mouth ran non stop which was a complete turn off especially when it was all nail polish and spirit squad. He could feel her studying him and it made his skin crawl. As if it wasn't bad enough the chicks on base hadn't been biting, now he was stuck in a car with two chicks he couldn't stand, headed back to a town where nothing and no one was waiting for him. He was in desperate need of a hot shower and a good lay neither of which looked likely anytime soon.

"Want me to drive for a while?" Manny offered softly.

Jay looked exhausted slouched over the steering wheel, shifting every now and then in an attempt to unlock the muscles in his back. The wrinkles in his forehead were a sure sign that he was forcing his eyes to stay open and the way the car kept veering across the center line proved he wasn't being very successful at it.

"Earth to Jay," she coaxed waving a hand in front of his face to get his attention.

He jerked back away from her hand causing the car to slide off the shoulder, the wheels connecting with the rumble strip and vibrating everything and everyone inside. A quick correction and the wheels were back on the asphalt where they were supposed to be. Jay turned an irritated glare towards Manny and snapped, "What?"

Manny crossed her arms over her chest defensively, paying little attention to the way her low cut neck line gave Jay an unobstructed view of her cleavage. "I asked if you wanted me to drive for awhile," she repeated. "You know before you kill us all."

Jay snorted derisively, "No offense sweet cheeks but there's no way in hell I'd ever let you drive my car."

Manny pursed her perfectly glossed lips as she turned her attention back to the scenery flying past the window, not that she could see much of it in the darkness. The moon had disappeared behind a large cloud that threatened snow and as far as she could tell no stars were dotting the horizon. The whole weekend had kind of been a waste. She'd spent most of it feeling like a third wheel and now she was being forced to death clutch the 'oh shit' handle because Jay was too stubborn to admit he was too tired to drive like a normal person. She just wanted to be at home in her nice warm bed doing chemistry homework and listening to her ipod. She'd even prefer listening to Darcy gush about Peter over being stuck out in the middle of nowhere with Jason Hogart and a distraught best friend who'd barely spoken since they'd left Québec.

"Maybe we should think about stopping for the night," she sighed. "It's late and we could all use a good night's sleep."

"Are you paying?" Jay questioned.

"I'll pay if it means we get home in one piece." Emma offered forlornly from the backseat.

Her reflection in the rearview mirror was pale, much paler than normal. Her eyes sunken back and surrounded by dark circles. Tear stains had dried on her cheeks, matting strands of blonde hair against her skin. She didn't look strong or confident or any of the other words that usually described Emma Nelson. Instead she looked broken, an image that took Jay back a few years to a time when that same look had gotten them both into trouble.

He shook the thought away before angling the car onto an exit ramp. He didn't really want to stop. He wanted to keep going until he could pull into the parking lot of his low rent apartment on the bad side of town and crack open the full case of beer chilling in the refrigerator. He'd call up that hot blonde he'd met last week at The Midtown and hopefully get lucky. But he didn't exactly want to listen to Slutos and Nature Freak bitching the entire three and a half hours left of the journey.

The road twisted and turned with no signs of civilization on either side. A heavy silence hung in the air growing even more suffocating the further they drove. Manny cracked her window letting in a rush of frozen air that all three companions greedily sucked in.

A faint glow appeared in the distance, the word 'vacancy' flashing against the night sky. Several letters were burned out a sure sign that it was probably going to be a roach motel. The corners of Jay's lips curved upwards in a sadistic smile and his foot pressed a little firmer on the gas peddle. The girls would no doubt protest the accommodations but it had been their idea to stop and Jay would gladly revel in their disgust and disapproval.

When the motel came into view an audible gulp echoed through the interior mixing with the purr of the heater and causing Jay's grin to grow even wider. "We're staying here?" Manny asked in surprise and appall.

Jay pulled into the parking lot, stopping the car in front of the main office. "Sorry Princess the five star hotel across the street was all booked." Jay replied snidely twisting in his seat and holding his hand out towards Emma for some cash to pay with.

Emma and Manny exchanged a concerned glance. The place didn't look safe much less clean. In fact it looked like something right out of a Hitchcock thriller. With a sigh Emma leaned over grabbing her purse off the floor and pulling out some cash. Wearily she handed it to Jay.

"Stay here," he ordered climbing out of the car and slamming the door shut.

Manny and Emma only hesitated a minute before rushing out of the car and after Jay, bumping into him right inside the door.

He growled, "I thought I told you to wait in the fucking car."

Before either girl could answer the back door swung open and an oily looking man stumbled out. His overalls were stained with yellow spots that matched the color of his teeth and he had slick black hair that hung loosely on either side of his head, large flakes of dandruff clinging to the part running down the middle.

Manny cringed stepping closer to Jay and winding her hands into the fabric of his jacket. He shot her a confused, annoyed look before pulling away from her grip.

"What can I do for you?" The man asked eyeing Jay and the two girls suspiciously.

"We need two rooms for the night." Jay explained laying the money on the counter along with his driver's license.

The guys head shook spraying white flakes across the counter. "Only got one room left," he replied.

The three companions turned their heads towards the window that overlooked the parking lot. It was empty with the exception of Jay's Honda and a beat up old ford that looked like it hadn't been started much less used in years.

"Are you serious?" Manny asked before she could stop herself.

The man's dark, drooping eyes landed on her, his gaze traveling up and down her body. Manny shivered under the intensity of his leer and involuntarily took a step back. The man's cracked lips parted in reply but Jay shifted his stance, blocking Manny from view. "We'll take it."


	2. Rated R

Jay unlocked the door to room twelve, kicking it open with the toe of his shoe and stepping inside. The room smelled strongly of Pinesol and fresh paint. Two double beds sat side by side facing a low dresser and a tiny television screen. A table and two chairs sat in one corner, a miniature refrigerator tucked underneath it. Despite the cleanly smell the room was dingy with a large layer of dust covering every surface that wasn't occupied and rusty looking stains dotting the yellow carpet.

"I need a shower," Manny grumbled as she made her way over to the bathroom, her skin still crawling from the pervert's glare. She flicked on the light switch and grimaced. "On second thought I think I'll pass," she added shrinking away from the open doorway.

Jay rolled his eyes, dropping his duffle bag onto the closest bed and unzipping it. He pulled out some fresh clothes then pushed past Manny into the bathroom. "Well if you're not going to…" he started before letting the door shut behind him.

Manny sighed collapsing onto the bed that wasn't littered with Jay's stuff. She glanced over at Emma who had dug out her knitting and was meticulously surveying the work she'd already started on Mr. Simpson's birthday present. It was a scarf made in the Degrassi school colors. Manny knew Mr. S. was going to love it not only because it was the perfect gift for him but because Emma had made it with her own hands. Sometimes she was insanely jealous of her best friend especially when it came to the relationship Emma had with her step father.

Her stomach growled reminding her that the only thing she'd had since breakfast was the candy bar she'd grabbed when Jay had stopped for gas. There was no way she'd make it through the night with out something to eat. The vending machine they'd past on the way to the room flashed through her mind and she pushed herself up off the bed.

"I'm going to go grab a candy bar or something. You want anything?" She asked pulling on her spirit squad sweatshirt and turning towards her friend.

Emma shook her head no, her attention still on the knitting needles rapidly swirling in her hands. "Want me to go with you?" She asked nonchalantly.

Manny bit into her lip, hesitantly. The guy in the office had really creped her out but Emma was in the groove of her therapeutic knitting and the machine was only a few doors away. With a reassuring smile Manny declined Emma's offer then headed out of the room leaving the door open just incase.

**-0-0-**

A cloud of steam followed Jay out of the bathroom. He'd had the shower as hot as it would go and it had done wonders for his stiff back muscles, alleviating the strain from driving three hours and only stopping once for gas. He felt a million times better until he spotted Emma and remembered he was stuck in the middle of nowhere with her and Manny. He needed a nicotine fix and bad.

Leaning over his duffle bag he began to search for the pack of cigarettes he'd picked up at the gas station, muttering a curse when he couldn't find them. Emma eyed him curiously as she undid the loop she'd messed up on.

He grabbed his keys off the dresser then as an after thought he picked up the room key too. Chances were the girls would lock him out just for spite and it was way to fucking cold to sleep in the car. Emma watched him head out side as she set her knitting down and stood up to stretch. With a yawn she headed into the bathroom shutting the door behind her.

Outside Jay rummaged through the glove compartment in search of his missing smokes. His cell phone vibrated in his back pocket and he pulled it out groaning at the familiar number flashing across the screen. Alex, no doubt calling to bitch about something Paige did or didn't do. He hit the end button and tossed the phone into the console's cup holder. He wasn't in the mood to listen to his ex girlfriend bitch about her current girlfriend. Hell he still didn't get Alex's sudden transformation into dyke hood.

He went back to the search, his fingers finally wrapping around the pack of cigarettes. He pulled them free shaking one out of the pack and putting it to his lips to light it. Climbing out of the car he sucked in the chemicals and let the smoke billow out mixing with the fog his breath made in the crisp December air.

In the distance Jay spotted Manny unwrapping what looked like a snickers bar while balancing a bottle of Mountain Dew in the crook of her arm. He groaned as her eyes met his and she started towards him.

"You know those things will kill you, right?" She questioned once she'd made it into hearing range.

Jay eyed the chocolate bar and soda pop as he took another drag. "And those won't," he questioned?

She shrugged taking a drink from her soda then offering the bottle to him. He frowned but accepted the drink swallowing a mouthful before handing it back.

They stood there in silence each enjoying their own addictions until a piercing scream drifted out of the open doorway to their hotel room. The bottle slid from Manny's hand oozing sticky liquid all over their shoes as she half breathed, half whispered her best friend's name.

Jay pushed himself off the car and dashed across the parking lot with Manny on his heels. Emma's knitting lay discarded on the side table but there wars no sign of her in the main room. His legs instinctively carried him to the bathroom door, his hand circling around the knob and desperately twisting but the door didn't budge. Fear pounded in his ears blocking out Manny's haggard breathing as she finally caught up. Using his shoulder he forcefully shoved against the door and with a splitting rip he fell through landing on the linoleum at Emma's feet.

Another shriek ripped from her throat as she spun around gripping the fold of the towel in order to keep it in place. "What do you think you're doing," she spat angrily.

"We….we heard you scream," Manny spluttered trying desperately to catch her breath from her urgent sprint.

Emma starred at her friend in disbelief a frown turning down the corners of her thin lips. "Sorry," she apologized squeezing her friends hand reassuringly. "There was a spider in the sink. You know how I feel about spiders."

Manny laughed lightly as the adrenaline left her system. Her friend was safe and come morning they'd pile back into the car and finish the last leg of their journey home.

Jay climbed back to his feet, rubbing his elbow where it had connected with the floor. He grumbled pushing past the girls and making his way to the small television. Hitting the power button he used the remote to scan through the lousy five or six stations all of which were fuzzed out. He sighed in irritation riffling through the videos sitting next to the set and popping one into the adjoined VCR.

Flopping down on the bed Jay propped himself up on the flimsy pillow as the movie began. "Alright, porn," he cried in excitement when a bedroom flashed onto the screen a man and woman making out on a worn out brown and orange comforter. There was something vaguely familiar about the scene but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Gross," Emma muttered grabbing her clothes and heading back into the bathroom to get dressed for bed.

Manny let her eyes drift from the video to the room surrounding her, an uneasy feeling knotting her stomach. She scanned the walls, studied the pictures hanging over the bed before turning back to the video. The same exact pictures hung over the couple that had crawled underneath the covers on the screen.

She tried to turn away, tried to stop watching as the camera zoomed in on a dark shadow watching the couple from a near by corner. Instinctively Manny's eyes shot to the same corner, now empty except for the sound of Emma's humming drifting through the thin wall that separated the bedroom area from the bathroom.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jay sit up his eyes also glued to the television screen. The shadow moved closer to the bed, a knife gleaming in the moonlight that peeked into the room from the center part in the curtains. Manny's hands began to shake as she slowly pushed herself up off the bed, the same bed that the dark figure now stood over, knife raised high above his head.

"Manny," Emma questioned in concern as she reemerged from the bathroom to find her best friend wide eyed in fear.

A piercing scream filled the room as the woman on the television pulled away from her husband's lips and spotted the stranger standing over them. The knife swung down, ripping into the husband's chest and sending spurts of blood across the wife's pink nightgown.

"What the fuck?" Jay muttered in disgust as he hit the fast forward button. In super speed the psycho on the screen plummeted the knife into the husband several more times before a second masked figure emerged grabbing the woman by the wrists and pulling her out of the bed before throwing her onto the floor.

The image disappeared from the screen as Emma hit the eject button on the VCR. "What was that?" She asked her eyes boring into Jay who was shaking his head in disbelief.

"That…that…that was this room," Manny stuttered her whole body trembling in fear, her eyes still glued to the blank screen.

Quickly Emma closed the distance between them wrapping a comforting arm around Manny's shoulders in an attempt to still the girl's convulsions. "No you're just…confused. That…that…" Emma tried to find the right word for the video but nothing came to mind.

"Snuff film," Jay finished for her pushing himself across the room to the television. "And Manny's right that was this room look…" He pushed the video back into the VCR and rewinded it to the beginning.

Emma studied the smaller version of her hotel room on the screen before spinning circles where she stood, trying desperately to find a logical reason why the two rooms were identical. This wasn't real, wasn't happening, it couldn't be.

Jay ejected the tape tossing it to the floor before grabbing a different one. Once again the mirror image of their room flashed across the screen this time two girls lounging on the beds, one reading, one flipping through the television channels like Jay had down earlier. Again a masked figure appeared in the corner. This time all three of them turned to the corner, still empty before drifting back to the screen. This time the man was carrying a gun, black steel cradled in his gloved hand as he inched closer to the two girls.

Emma wanted to scream, to yell a warning at the unsuspecting girls despite the fact that she knew whatever was about to happen on the screen had already taken place in real life. As the man edged closer she dropped her eyes, starring instead at her feet the reddish-brown speckles beneath her toes suddenly growing as she realized what the were.

"Oh, my god," she whispered, her breath catching in her throat. Her words were lost in the howls of terror flowing from the screen. She refused to look back up, refused to watch. Manny had begun shaking again a sure sign that the horrors Emma saw in her mind were a reality for the girls on the screen.

The silence was deafening as Jay stopped the tape. None of them spoke, none of them moved, to shocked and scared to even think. Something thudded loudly against the door causing Emma and Manny to scream and cling to one another. Jay jumped too as another thud echoed around them. He tried to remember whether or not he'd locked the door but his brain was still trying to wrap itself around the videos.

The doorknob began to jingle and Jay lurched himself forward, slipping the chain into place as the door pushed open a couple of inches. "A little help," he called to the girls as he struggled against the stranger's weight in order to get the door closed and bolted.

Emma was the first to reach him although her tiny frame did little to budge the pressure from the other side. Manny was slower, her shaking legs causing her to trip and stumble but eventually she added her hands to the harsh wood and began to push. The door slammed closed and Jay immediately clicked the bolt into place.

Manny sunk down to the floor hugging her knees to her chest. She couldn't see anything beyond the gruesome video's playing on repeat inside her head. Her entire body felt cold as it continued to tremble, completely beyond her control. Her stomach lurched threatening to expel the candy bar she'd eaten just minutes ago…had it really been just minutes?

"What are we going to do?" Emma asked glancing down at Manny before turning towards Jay.

He was pacing back and forth, running his fingers through his disheveled hair, wracking his brain for an answer, an escape. There had to be away out, there just had to be.

"Jay!" Emma shouted drawing his attention away from his own thoughts. "What are we going to do?" She asked again, her voice shaking slightly.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" He shot back. "It's not like I've ever had a knife or gun wielding psycho trying to kill me before."

Emma's brain carried her back in time. Suddenly she wasn't in a cheap hotel room she was standing in a very familiar hallway at Degrassi starring down the barrel of loaded gun and into the angry eyes of Rick Murray. She'd survived because of Sean, because he'd intervened and attempted to wrestle the gun from Rick's hands. But Sean was gone and the man or men outside weren't going to give up. They'd left the tapes on purpose, counting on the curiosity of the teens to play them. There was no way the three of them would be allowed to walk out of room twelve with their lives.


End file.
